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European Parliament wants stricter punishment for hackers

A draft law backed by the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament would increase maximum punishments for attacks on IT systems within EU member states to at least two years of prison, five years if a denial-of-service (DoS) attack or a botnet was involved. The proposal was approved by fifty votes to one, with three abstentions.

If this law is passed, member states would also punish the spoofing of IP addresses in such an attack with a maximum penalty of at least three years. Additionally, the production or sale of "computer programs designed for cyber-attacks, or which find a computer password by which an information system can be accessed", would constitute a criminal offence.

As part of the proposed law, the European Parliament counts on member states to coordinate crime fighting efforts in this area. In a similar vein, the European Commission has also just proposed the creation of a Cybercrime Centre as part of Europol.